CAPE ELIZABETH — Elvis the rooster is no longer disturbing the peace in the suburban Farm Hill Road neighborhood, but that didn’t stop the Town Council from making sure Thursday night that his kind won’t be allowed there in the future.

The council voted 5-2 to approve an ordinance that prohibits roosters on lots smaller than 40,000 square feet. That’s a 200-by-200-foot parcel, or just under an acre.

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Cape Elizabeth Town Councilor Caitlin Jordan speaks out against the ordinance banning roosters on smaller properties following public discussion on the issue Thursday. John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Joseph Gajda of Cape Elizabeth listens during a public hearing about an ordinance banning roosters from smaller properties in his town. He had been disturbed by a noisy rooster called Elvis living next door to his home. John Ewing/Staff Photographer

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Elvis, who was owned by the Kennedy family, raised feathers last summer in their densely populated subdivision off Route 77 and Scott Dyer Road. The Kennedys have since given Elvis away.

The neighborhood is lined with mostly modest capes on small, narrow lots where neighbors can easily see from one backyard deck to the next.

“Roosters simply don’t belong in residential neighborhoods where houses are close together,” said Councilor David Sherman, who voted in favor of the ban along with councilors Jessica Sullivan, Katharine Ray, James Walsh and Martha MacAuslan.

Councilors noted that they had failed to deal with a similar rooster controversy two years ago and that roosters weren’t necessary to raise chickens, so the ban wouldn’t undermine the town’s rural heritage or affect larger farms.

“The backyard chicken movement is growing,” Sherman said. “This issue will keep cropping up.”

Sherman noted that while 60 percent of lots in town are smaller than 40,000 square feet, they represent only 11 percent of the total land area.

Councilor Caitlin Jordan, a lawyer who works on her family’s farm, vigorously opposed the ban and urged the council to table the ban and consider other options.

Jordan, who voted against the ban with Councilor Jamie Wagner, said, “We’re going to lose a hold on being a rural community that we are so proud of.”

Jordan suggested revamping the noise or animal control ordinances and developing a mediation program to help residents address similar disputes in the future so the council would less often be put in the middle of neighborhood squabbles.

During a public hearing that preceded the council’s vote, Patrick and Crystal Kennedy said they gave Elvis away because he had started attacking their dog. They said the ban is unconstitutional because it discriminates against small-property owners and roosters.

“Unless you have money, you’re not allowed certain rights,” Crystal Kennedy said, adding that Elvis had become a pet that had helped her family deal with past abuse issues.

Named Elvis following a family trip to Graceland in June, the offending rooster grew from one of six chicks the family brought home in April. Five were males and all have been given away. Kennedy said they still have three hens and plan to get more chicks next spring.

Several other residents spoke against the ban, saying that it was a blanket prohibition that would unnecessarily prevent some residents from having roosters where they posed no problem.

“It comes down to being a good neighbor and using common sense,” said Leona Fitzgerald of Long Point Lane. She said that under the ban, she would no longer be able to keep roosters with her chickens on her small lot, though her property is surrounded mostly by woods and her roosters haven’t disturbed her neighbors.

Still, the majority of councilors were more sympathetic to the concerns of Joe Gajda, who lives next door to the Kennedys and was one of two residents to speak in favor of the ban.

“It was constantly crowing,” Gajda said. “It was like an assault.”

This story was updated Friday, November 7, 2014 at 8:57 a.m. to correct the name of Cape Elizabeth councilor David Sherman.

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